Hallucinations And Pea Soup
by Dragon MoonX
Summary: Giftfic for corvusaurelius. It's the day before Chastity's birthday. Credence is sick, a snowstorm is bearing down on the church, and a power outage is threatening to ruin Mary Lou's stash of frozen peas


**Hallucinations and Pea Soup**

Disclaimer: All Fantastic Beasts names, characters and locations belong to J. K. Rowling. I own nothing that you recognize.

A/N: This story was inspired by a Russian Fantastic Beasts fanfiction on A03 entitled_ Twilight Chest._ The story is very good, but it appears as though Mary Lou has developed an obsession with peas. Read it and you'll see what I mean. This story also features the leaf machine, an object found in another translated work which Mary Lou uses for making leaves.

* * *

It was midmorning, a sliver of dull grey sunshine passing through the clouds that hung low over the city. The homeless children had come and gone, collecting their leaflets and eating their morning meal, leaving the Barebone family to partake of the leftovers.

The eldest of the three children was allowed a seat at the table after he finished helping his mother serve the children. As usual they had nothing but pea soup, a favorite of Mary Lou's that she prepared on a daily basis.

Credence glanced at his siblings, seeing Chastity bring a spoon to her lips as she began her meal, then looked down at his own bowl and gagged. Modesty wrinkled her nose is disgust, lifting her spoon then pouring the contents back into the bowl. She looked up at the sound of her brother's hoarse retching, seeing him quickly cover his mouth with his hand.

"Credence, are you okay?" Modesty queried, her question drawing their mother's attention.

Having caught his mother's eye, Credence looked away when Mary Lou quirked an eyebrow at him. "I'm alright," he muttered, shifting slightly before tucking into his meal. It wasn't until his mother returned to her leaf machine that Credence reached for his napkin, using it to wipe the sweat off his brow.

He'd been feeling sick since last night, waking with a temperature of one hundred and one that persisted throughout the morning. Even now, as he sat at the table with his sisters, shaking and sweating and trying not to vomit, he could tell that something was wrong. He also noticed that no one in his family seemed to care that he was ill. No one, that is, except for Modesty.

A moment passed, and suddenly the spoon fell from Credence's hand, clattering against the side of the bowl. He'd barely made it through a third of his breakfast when he remembered the dream he'd had the night before. A dream in which there had been pea soup everywhere, dripping and running down the walls of his mother's church.

In his dream he was forced to watch as the rising tide of pea soup began to flood the building. He then ran to the closet to retrieve the mop and bucket, thinking he could clean up this mess before everyone drowned in his mother's soup. But when he opened the door an avalanche of peas spilled out, burying him alive beneath a mountain of green vegetables.

"Credence?" Modesty's voice, so small and quiet, drifted through the feverish haze that clouded his thoughts. "Credence, are you daydreaming?"

The young man started and came awake with a gasp, not realizing that he had almost fallen asleep in his breakfast. He opened his mouth to speak, still trembling and fearful after recalling that horrendous nightmare, when there came a rattling noise from the opposite end of the kitchen.

Apparently his mother's worn out old leaf machine had started malfunctioning again, spewing greyish smoke from its rusted opening all over the church. It didn't help that Mary Lou had been using it to multiply her peas, causing it to fire a combination of vegetables and foliage in every direction.

One pea struck the window, breaking the glass and landing in a lake some twenty miles away. Another pea shot out through the wall and lodged itself halfway down senator Shaw's throat, causing him to choke just as he was rehearsing his speech for the meeting at town hall.

Peas ricocheted off the floor and ceiling, hurtling through the air at top speed as though they'd been fired from a machine gun. Mary Lou ducked behind the counter to avoid being struck by a barrage of flying vegetables. Chastity, however, was not so lucky, and had started to run when a pea soared through the air and wedged itself up her nose.

Credence dove under the kitchen table with his sister Modesty, escaping the onslaught of peas from his mother's leaf machine. When the noise died down, Mary Lou ran towards her eldest daughter, concerned about the pea that was clogging her left nostril.

"She's probably fussing over her because tomorrow's her birthday," said Modesty. "That's why she sent you to the market yesterday, so we'd have extra peas for Chastity's birthday cake."

Of course, the market. Why didn't he think of that? It was probably his trip to the market, carrying home ten pound bags of peas in the snow that made him sick.

"I think I need to lay down," Credence mumbled, his back against the wall as he shook with feverish chills. He wasn't ready to deal with another one of his mother's pea cakes. And long about now he felt certain he was going to vomit if he heard anything more about those nasty vegetables.

.oOo.

The snows returned during the late hours of the night, the fierce winds driving the storm throughout the city. It quickly began to accumulate on sidewalks and roadways, weighing down branches and rooftops, until the power lines sagged under several feet of fresh powder.

Credence, who had been having difficulty falling asleep due to the noise from the storm, lay huddled beneath a mound of blankets on the bed. He rolled over onto his back, staring at the ceiling as the wind whistled between the crevices of the building. He was beginning to doze when an earsplitting crack jolted him from his sleep, a shower of sparks flashing outside his bedroom window as the power lines snapped, plunging the city into darkness.

Silence spread throughout the room, save for the relentless wind and the sound of blood rushing in his ears. His vision blurred, and for a moment he couldn't be sure of where he was. He was only aware of the strange pulsation beneath his skin, the rhythm mirroring that of the flashes outside his window.

Next came the sound of footsteps hammering against the stairs, his mother running down the hall with a candlestick clenched in her fist. She reached his bedroom in record time, slinging the door open with enough force to send it bouncing off the wall.

"Credence!" she exclaimed, looking quite mad in the flickering candlelight. "The electricity has gone out and we must protect the peas!"

The young man cowered beneath the fierce gaze of his mother, pulling the covers up to his chin like a child trying to hide from the monster under the bed. In his delirium he imagined the candlestick morphing into a leather belt, the buckle glinting ominously as she raised her hand and prepared to strike.

Terrified, he began to back away, his mother seizing him by the arm and dragging him out of bed. She took no notice of his illness as she hauled him downstairs, opened the icebox and thrust a bag of frozen peas at him.

The coolness of the peas felt good against his hot skin, his shoulders sinking as he started to relax. Then came another bag of frozen peas. Then another and another. She didn't stop until ten bags had been stacked against his chest, burdening her son with a load of vegetables.

Credence blinked and stared at her in confusion, not daring to speak or question her bizarre behavior. He knew better than to open his mouth when Mary Lou was having another one of her episodes, lest he wind up on the receiving end of another painful beating.

"Take them outside and put them in the snow," said Mary Lou, grasping his shoulders and turning him towards the door. "If we bury them outside, they should stay fresh until the electricity comes back on." She then placed her hand on his back and shoved him out the door, oblivious to his discomfort as he forced him out into the cold.

The door slammed behind him, and suddenly he was alone, staring at the front door of the church in disbelief. It was bad enough when she beat him, when she forced him onto his knees and tipped hot coals into his hands while ordering him to recite the Lord's prayer, over and over again. But to throw him out in the middle of a raging snowstorm when he was sick, that was low even for her.

A snarl formed on his lips, rage coiling inside his chest as he stood there shivering in the cold. He could feel it crawling beneath his skin, emotions separate, as though it belonged to another part of him.

'Not here,' he reminded himself, the chilling winds whipping strands of hair across his face. A muscle twitched over his left eye, his features contorting as he fought to contain the living shadow writhing within his veins. 'She'll think I was the one who caused the blackout. I can't give her a reason to believe... I can't give her a reason to hurt...'

And yet he couldn't help but question, wondering if his magic might have been the source of the destruction. It seemed like he would never know the answer, and so he forced it aside, pushing past the uncertainty and fear, shoving it down and suppressing his abilities once more as he began to walk, choosing a place beside his mother's church to bury the frozen peas.

'This is for Chastity,' he thought, getting down on his knees and digging with his bare hands in the snow. Tears pricked the corners of his eyes, a tired sob whisked away on the wind as his fingers started going numb. 'She deserves to have a decent birthday.'

Alone he wept, burying the peas before returning to his mother's church. He barely made it past the threshold when his strength gave out and he collapsed onto the floor, the fall cushioned by a layer of leaves strewn across the doorway.

His sister Modesty, who had come awake not long after the power outage, hurried down the stairs, her bare feet moving quickly over the hardwood floor. She felt her way through the living room, listening for the sound of Credence's harsh, ragged breathing to tell her where he was.

"Credence?" she whispered, reaching out and feeling for him in the dark. "Where are you? Say something, Credence."

Credence groaned and rolled over onto his side, his arms around his waist as he curled in on himself. He wanted to bury himself under a pile of his mother's leaves, lying there on the floor until sleep found him at last.

"Credence!" Her voice rang out in the dark, her hand on his shoulder, the other on his back, helping him sit up. She could feel the heat radiating from his skin, the silence broken when he leaned over and started coughing into his closed fist. "Come on, Credence," she said, gently trying to coax him up off the floor. "You can't stay out here all night. You'll catch pneumonia."

"I think I already have." Credence slumped against the wall, his hair and clothing drenched in a layer of perspiration. "Or maybe it's the flu."

A sudden spasm brought with it a spark of light, igniting the oil lamp on the table to his right. Modesty gasped, clinging to her brother as the Obscurus twitched beneath his skin.

His arm wrapped around her in a protective gesture, knowing that he couldn't control what was happening. "Help me," Credence whispered pitifully. "Help me, please..."

Modesty swallowed hard and nodded, telling herself that maybe their mother hadn't fully extinguished the lamp before leaving the room. She took a step back, then another, grasping her brother's hands and helping him along until he got up and started walking. Together they made their way upstairs, leaving behind the peas and leaves as Credence settled down for the remainder of the evening.

.oOo.

Once he was in bed, his mind started playing tricks on him, showing him glittering waves of green and pink streaking like a comet across the darkness of his room. Modesty did her best to ease his discomfort, bringing him a damp washcloth and draping it across his forehead. But the bizarre images remained, gradually morphing into vines and flowers that rose from a never ending field of peas.

His mother, who had taken the form of a white rabbit wearing an oversized pair of glasses, hopped out into the middle of the field and began her sermon.

She rose up on her hind legs, her eyes magnified behind the shining lenses, and with a voice that rolled like thunder across the land she cried, "And the angel of the lord came unto me, snatching me up from my place of slumber. And took me on high, and higher still, until we moved to the spaces betwixt the air itself. And he brought me into a vast farmland of our own midwest, and as we descended cries of impending doom rose from the soil."

Credence looked around, watching the sweet pea blossoms tremble as they huddled together in the field. One by one their lengthening stalks curled around the neighboring plants, the terrified vegetables weeping and holding each other in fading sunlight.

"One thousand, nay, a million voices full of fear," Mary Lou shouted above the rising cacophony of shrieking plants. "And terror possessed me then. And I begged, 'Angel of the lord, what are these tortured screams?' And the angel said unto me, 'These are the cries of the peas. The cries of the peas!' You see, Reverend Credence, tomorrow is harvest day and to them it is the apocalypse."

Bright green tendrils crept across the earth, ensnaring the young man as they wrapped around his wrists and ankles. Credence began to panic, the squeaking, squealing voices droning on and on like a mosquito buzzing in his ears.

He struggled against the tangled stalks, trying to escape before he was suffocated beneath the writhing pea colony. And still his mother continued to preach, ignoring her son as he too began to scream.

"And I rose from my slumber drenched in sweat like the tears of one million terrified brothers and roared, 'Hear me now! I have seen the light! They have a consciousness. They have a life. They have a soul, damn you!'" Mary Lou screeched, her voice joining the echo of sound that shook the earth. "Let the rabbits wear glasses! Save our brothers! Can I get a amen?"

"Amen!" cried the peas.

"Can I get a hallelujah?"

"Hallelujah!" sang the chorus of peas.

Mary Lou was hopping now, performing a peculiar on the spot jig, her ears flapping and flailing as her glasses slid down her nose. And all the while Credence continued to scream, kicking and thrashing as his sister tried holding him down in bed.

In desperation Modesty called for her sister, hoping she could help her get control of the situation. It took a moment of fumbling in the dark, the eldest daughter finding a candle and lighting it before running to Credence's room, helping her sister calm their older brother before things got out of hand.

.oOo.

By morning the electricity had been restored, the lights shining in the windows as Mary Lou busied herself with preparations for Chastity's birthday.

She placed the ingredients on the kitchen table: milk, sugar, vanilla, lemons, flour and eggs. She had everything she needed, except for peas. The peas were still buried beneath three feet of snow in the yard.

"Credence!" she hollered, her son wincing at the sound of her voice as he was helped along by his sister.

Chastity had him by the hand, her eyes wide and fearful as she whipped around, seeing their mother with a wooden spoon tucked into the pocket in her apron. She froze on the middle of the staircase, her brother standing beside her with his head bowed, not daring to make eye contact with their abusive mother.

"I want you to go outside and bring me the peas," said Mary Lou in a voice of deathly calm. "And be quick about it."

"I'm sorry," Chastity murmured, turning to her brother with a look of sympathy. She let go of his hand, her heart breaking for him as he shuffled past, wordlessly opening the door and walking out into the cold, bleak morning.

He was still feverish, still burning as he fell to his knees and started digging through the snow. His sight was swimming, blurred around the edges. It would be a miracle if he didn't pass out.

He collected the bags of frozen peas, holding them against his chest as he stumbled through the doorway. But it wasn't fast enough to please his mother, the belt coming down and slicing through the flesh on his palms.

Credence sank to the floor, shaking as blood trickled past his wrists. He could smell the thick coppery scent, scarlet ribbons hot against his skin, dripping and pooling on the floor. But he couldn't feel the familiar sting he'd come to associate with this type of punishment. His hands had gone numb from the cold, and for once he was grateful for his mother's bizarre behavior, for it meant delaying the pain until later in the day when Mary Lou was putting the finishing touches on her pea cake.

He tried returning to his room, but was soon hauled downstairs and ordered to sit at the table. There before him stood his mother's extravagant lemon pea cake with vanilla frosting, garnished with a sprig of mint for added color. The sight was nauseating and the smell was even worse, making his insides churn as he stood with one hand on the back of his chair.

"Sit down, Credence," said Mary Lou, who had already taken a seat across from her eldest daughter. Modesty was sitting at the table as well, occasionally kicking her feet while she waited for her brother to join them.

An uncomfortable silence filled the room, the stink of peas and leaves souring his stomach. Credence slid his palm across the back of the chair, splinters tugging on the ragged strips of greying cloth that he had wrapped around his bleeding hands. They were given a moment, a pause between breaths as everything that Credence had eaten during the last twenty-four hours rose in his throat. The next thing he knew he was vomiting down the front of Mary Lou's dress, splattering her lap with a slurry of pea soup and partially digested ham chunks.

His mother rose screaming from the table, her youngest daughter unable to hold back the smile that blossomed on her lips. Chastity put her hands over her mouth, gasping as Mary Lou continued to yell at her older brother.

In the end Credence was sent to his room without further punishment, his mother sending him away as she ran to sink and started splashing water on her dress. Modesty fled the room in a fit of giggles, leaving Chastity seated at the table, staring at the pea cake which had been forgotten in the ensuing chaos.

It wasn't until later that evening when Chastity made her way upstairs, hearing the gentle murmur of conversation as she approached the door leading to Credence's bedroom.

Her fingers curled around the doorknob, opening the door and seeing her little sister sitting on the foot of the bed. Credence was resting under a mound of blankets, one hand reaching up and adjusting the cloth on his forehead as Chastity entered the room.

"I'm sorry to bother you, Credence," said Chastity, speaking softly as she approached the bed. "I just wanted to say thank you."

Credence blinked and stared at her. "For what?"

"For the birthday gift," Chastity said at length, her lips quivering as she fought to hold back a smile. "I've never heard mother scream like that, and by now I'm sure we've all had enough of her and those rancid peas. I didn't really want to eat the cake anyway," she added, a grin chasing her words.

"You're welcome?" His response came out sounding like a question, amusing his sisters and making them laugh.

Truly this was a birthday they would remember for years to come.


End file.
